Under the Dome

Syracuse University students and alums likely won’t be too broken up about the recent name change of their famed stadium. That’s because The JMA Wireless Dome, formerly the Carrier Dome, has never really been known by either of those names. Ask any fan where the Orange play, and they’ll tell you it’s simply: “The Dome.”

So, it’s easy to imagine that being tasked with replacing The Dome’s iconic white apex might come with a serious dose of pressure. And that’s before you consider that this is no ordinary ceiling we’re talking about. The JMA Wireless Dome is the single largest domed stadium on any college campus and the largest in the entire northeastern United States. Geiger Engineering, the original designer of the Carrier Dome, was called on once again to wow prospective athletic recruits and keep everyone cool and safely off the roof.

A team from Colliers Engineering & Design, led by Lucas Boyer, PLS, Geographic Discipline Leader for Survey/ Geospatial services, was brought in to perform the vertical survey which would guide this very unique dome from bottom to top to meet perfectly in the middle of the structure.

Since the Carrier Dome opened in 1980, the Syracuse men’s basketball team has led the NCAA in average attendance sixteen times. It also holds the record for the largest home-court single game attendance with 35,642 for a game against Duke in 2019. What those statistics can’t capture, however, is the oppressive heat and humidity generated when thousands of fans, some dripping orange-and-blue paint, lose their minds over a late-game threepointer. That’s because, until recently, the dome was inflated by a system designed in the late 1970s. Forced air kept the fabric ceiling afloat, but it also prevented anyone from cracking a window when it got hot. Things weren’t that much better in the wintertime either. Staff had to actually climb up onto the roof and push snow off to avoid the risk of buckling.

It was time for a change, and when over two hundred million dollars was pledged to make upgrades to the aging stadium, the roof was an obvious place to start. A steel cable truss system clad with rigid panels and a tension membrane would allow for much more than just improved airflow. Because of the PTFE membrane used, natural light can illuminate the field and will help save the school millions in energy costs. If that isn’t enough good news, the new structure also supports more than 7,000 tons of snow. Even in Syracuse, that should just about cover it.

With the design in place, the Hayner Hoyt Corporation, a construction company based in Syracuse with a long history of transforming college campuses, was tapped to bring Geiger’s vision to life. But before anything could be taken down or put up, Colliers Engineering & Design’s survey crew had to rise to their biggest challenge yet. Lucas Boyer’s survey team including Randy Decker, Charles Leary, Mark Reardon and Dwayne Cooper, took to the field and didn’t come home until they’d connected the dots on this massive 260,000 sq ft project. Armed with their total stations, laser scanners, and some unexpectedly handy infrared thermometers, the crew discovered new techniques and managed to put the engineers and construction crews at ease by mapping the project out with near perfection, all at over a hundred-and-fifty feet off the ground.

The new roof’s design was split into four sections to accommodate the movement of the steel and fabric that comprised the structure. With a cable system designed by Pfeifer Structures tethering each section together, each quadrant had to come together during construction. As a result, the room for error was less than 3/8ths of an inch.

“We’ve been working together since 2009,” Boyer said of Decker and Cooper. “So, we’ve developed a deep sense of trust. But when we first got going, there were some nerves. It wasn’t until we closed the northern half at under 1/8th of an inch error that we took a collective breath and said, ‘you know what, we can do this.’”

Besides the sheer size and complexity of the job, the crew was also fighting swings in temperature that were literally shifting the building and new superstructure. Unexpected differences started popping up and baffling just about everyone on site. Readings that were perfect at night were off beyond expectations the next day, and it wasn’t until the crew brought out those infrared thermometers and set monitoring points on the building face

that they understood why—the steel was contracting and expanding, sometimes by more than an inch. To make matters even more daunting, some quadrants of the structure were hit by sunlight earlier in the day than others. But by correcting for the exact temperature of the steel, the team solved the mystery and provided the engineers and construction crew with vital information.

“It was an incredible learning experience,” Boyer said. “Working with the design and construction teams we had to come up with some new/different techniques to make sure we are able to meet the intended tolerances of the project.”

Construction got underway, and the Colliers Engineering & Design team was in constant contact with Hayner Hoyt and remaining construction team to ensure every ounce of the massive 129,000-pound crown truss came together with utter precision. When all was said and done, the new dome had elegantly altered the Syracuse skyline and provided the famed sports programs at SU with the jaw-dropping arena it deserves.

As construction concluded, Colliers Engineering & Design's crew was on hand for a traditional end-of-project ceremony where team members signed the steel, decked it out in ceremonial flags, and topped it off with a tree, an old Scandinavian tradition meant to symbolically “bring the building to life.” However, if that didn’t work, we’re confident the students at SU would’ve gotten the job done anyway when the Orange defeated Georgia Tech, 37-20, for the first win in a building that, despite all the changes, everyone still just calls “The Dome.”

All Photos courtesy of The Haynor Hoyt Corporation